Prism of Hope, Prism of Tears
by Venom Amaranth
Summary: When a friend of Jaden's appears on the island, Jaden has but two tasks: Not only must he, his friends, and a new face protect him, but he must unravel the details of an incident that occurred six months prior...
1. Preface

**I AM THE VENOM AMARANTH, RETURNED FROM THE GRAVE!**

**Sorry, I had to do that. ^^; How long has it been since I've been here? A million years? Lol. XD I have discontinued Hour of Aurora, but have begun this. I'm taking this genre to a whole new level! Wheee! I've been enjoying deviantART lately. You can find this story there.**

**Alright, down to business. Beginning the preface of Prism of Hope, Prism of Tears!**

**Dedicated to Kaisre and Pharaohyamifan, for being the biggest sweethearts.**

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**PREFACE**

"What do you intend to do with him when he finally wakes up?"

It had been dark for so long. It was like being blindfolded, fastened, and trapped in a pitch dark void, but my heart leapt at the thought of another human being speaking. There was an aggravating beeping noise somewhere nearby, but I didn't care because I would finally see life again.

"He's been here for so long," the voice sounded as though it was somewhere in his late thirties or early forties, but it was light, not deep like men that age. "But I'll be sure to get him back to his school." Why was that voice so familiar? It couldn't be _my _chancellor.

But it felt as though I was coming out of a statue like state, since every part of my body was so numb it was going to take a few moments before I could feel familiarity in my limbs again. To calibrate my position, I slowly tried to clench my hand into a fist. At first, my fingers resisted the urge to stir, but I eventually regained command and they began to move. Slowly this time, they were all moving exactly the way I hoped and they gently clawed into my palm.

"He doesn't attend Duel Academy?" it was the same voice that asked him what he would do with me. It was a young female voice, but not a child.

Testing my arm carefully, I moved my hand to see if my arm was indisputably operational, and my endeavor confirmed it. Slowly, my limbs and then my entire body regained normality, so now, I just had to open my eyes.

"No," was the man's response. "He goes to North Academy."

When they began to flutter open, light cracked through like it flows through the bottom of a door. I was nearly blinded by the time they were half open when a light blasted into them, but I couldn't afford to let them close now. The people around me had to know I was reunited with the world, and that I was awake.

"I'm surprised _his _chancellor hasn't come to see him yet. Wouldn't he know if one of his students had been staying here for so long?"

Why in the _world_ were they talking about Chancellor Foster? Hopefully my voice was still functioning. My eyes were now fully opened, but my vision was blurry. I mentally prayed my eyes would adjust to the bright, but warm and welcoming light beaming right next to me.

I thought about shielding my eyes, but when I looked around, I saw something similar to a slender tube stabilized from somewhere nearby, and it was secured into my hand by some sort of band. An IV! It didn't take long for me to realize where I was.

My thoughts were shattered when I heard a startled gasp. Alarmed, I looked up. Thankfully, my eyes had adjusted at that point, so I had a much clearer view. They came to rest upon two people. One of them was a young woman in blue scrubs, a clipboard in her hands that looked like it was just about ready to fall out. Her brown hair flowed to her shoulders, and her crystalline blue eyes looked at me as though a thorn was coming out of me.

I turned my head to the man next to her. One glance was all it took for me to recognize him as Chancellor Sheppard from Duel Academy, who looked at me with a welcoming smile, which seemed to ease my soul.

"It's good to see you're finally awake, Jesse," he said warmly.

How long had I been here literally in the dark? I attempted to open my mouth, but a memory struck my brain like a bird flying into a window…where was Alyssa? Did she…?

"Are you confused?"

Snapping out of a trance, I shook my head. The nurse bent down suddenly and stripped the IV from my hand.

"It's a miracle you've finally awoken," she said with a smile. She then removed a mask from my face, took my wrist, and helped me out of the bed. "We were getting so worried."

"What to do with him though?" I could hear Sheppard. "His parents are gone and Alyssa…"

I darted my head towards him. Where was she? I opened my mouth to speak, but at that moment, an unknown fear jammed my throat.

"Does he have any friends at North Academy?" the nurse asked.

It was at that point something silver arrested my attention. Alerted, I tucked my chin to examine it. A chain slithered down to a silver heart shaped object with a strange feather like pattern blanketing it. Although they were hard to see, I could see hinges on both sides of the heart. A locket? My hand snapped up to examine it, but Sheppard spoke again.

"Jesse," he said reassuringly. The same warm smile was still there, but it was also a beam of buoyancy. "Once you are discharged, come with me. I know someone who may be able to help you."

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**End of Preface. **

**If you are confused, please PM me and ask me nicely what's going on. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone else. **

**Venom Amaranth has left the building.**


	2. Elevator Shaft

**Phew...okay, here's chapter two. Hehe, I remembered I was still reading The Host while I was writing this. XD Good times, good times. **

**I was gonna make it longer, but Chazz got me confused so...yeah.**

**Okay, down to business!**

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**1. ELEVATOR SHAFT**

**Jaden Yuki**

My eyes soared open the second I heard the nauseating strike in my dream, a muted gasp following them. I sat up abruptly, hoping I could stay focused long enough to make sure I couldn't returned to my slumped position in the seat. I would have to make sure to remember what I experienced in order to force myself conscious. What time was it anyways? My alerted eyes whipped themselves to the nearest clock.

Eleven fifty am. Five minutes until the class got out. It would be a small window of time, but I could probably bear it long enough to keep myself wide awake.

I had never experienced a dream like that while I slept in class. Dueling was my passion, it was like a solace to escape the pain one experienced from the death of a pet, so I often had a few dreams of me dueling and often defeating my opponent. But this was like no other. This was the kind of dream that would be a scene in a horror story. The dark, narrow channel that was there lingered in my mind, as if to remind me not to return to the dream world. The wind that had been erupting below me during that time was another sign to not succumb back to sleep.

Two minutes passed quickly. Another three, and we'd be free for the lunch break. Either Syrus or Hassleberry, who were both right next to me, probably saw me arouse hurriedly, so if they asked me what happened, I would have to tell them. I wasn't about to keep secrets from two of my closest friends. I considered writing it down, but with a dream like that, it wasn't promising to disregard.

So I replayed the images in my head, over and over again for the next three minutes. I shuddered each time I reached the ending, where I heard the thud. It was only then I remembered something else that came along at the end, before I awoke.

Pain. I remembered wondering when it would end, before the place became even blacker.

The nasal buzzing sound finally broke me away from that horrifying sequence of images as I rushed out of the classroom, being the twenty first out of thirty nine students to get out the door. The halls were filled with the medley of voices of conversing students and their footsteps. It seemed much more hushed outside, perhaps because there weren't that many people. The route to the dorm's cafeteria had become a permanent fixture in my brain; I didn't need a map to guide me. My breath was diminutive by the time I slowed to a walk. I contently opened the door and walked in slowly, settling in on a table close to the back.

The room was beginning to partially fill up with all of the Slifers, only eleven-now twelve-of them occupying the room. Syrus and Hassleberry would be coming in any minute now. Normally, I would have been walking here, but I was in a hurry to relinquish a premature persistence. The door slid open again after five minutes faded with time, and like I believed, Hassleberry and Syrus both walked into the room, detecting me in the back, and then zeroing in to join me.

I was so lost in thought I didn't even notice the very second when our serving was set at our table. When I rejoined the world, I took a quick glance on what would permanently become devoured. It was a pretty simple meal, a few sushi rolls accompanied with a fingerprint sized piece of wasabi, three gyoza, and miso. The chopsticks in my hand were raising a piece of gyoza when words escaped out of nowhere, but in a tone I recognized as Syrus' voice.

"Hey Jay," Syrus said. "What was up in class today? One minute you were completely out, and then the next you just snapped out of it!"

"Looked like you were hit by a surprise attack, too," Hassleberry said.

A surprise attack. I would have described it like being stabbed with a pencil, but that was a sweet correspondence too. I hesitated for the shortest half second before the words flooded from my lips.

"Weird dream," I replied. "It wasn't like anything I dreamt about before. It was more like a short story that one guy would write if he were still alive...what was it…? Something Poe…wrote a poem about ravens…"

"Edgar Allan Poe?" Syrus asked.

"That's the name," I replied with a slight smile. "'Quote the raven, Nevermore' right?"

Syrus and Hassleberry looked at each other questioningly, as if they were asking each other if they really wanted to know what was in my trance. It took them five seconds to glance back at me.

"A soldier who writes about birds, huh?" Hassleberry said. "So what was in your dream that would compare it to that?"

And I told them the tale the rapid eye movement in my sleep had composed.

*******

"Sam Hill!" Hassleberry exclaimed, dropping his sushi roll. "They pushed you into an elevator shaft?!"

"Actually, I threw myself in," I replied.

"And you died?" Syrus looked at me, astonishment and repulsion written in those silver irises, as I grabbed the last of my gyoza and popped it into my mouth.

"I think I did, but I'm not sure. I just remember there was so much pain I came close to screaming. And I really did try to grab something, I just couldn't get my hands on anything."

"Well, all be…" Hassleberry came close to never saying another word. "With those monsters chasin' ya throughout that base and you given the choice to surrender, I can see why you compared that to this bird soldier!"

"Um, his name's Edgar Allan Poe, Sarge," Syrus looked at him, rose-colored cheeks suppressed. But the embarrassed smile on his face couldn't be shackled.

Our conversation was cut off as the door slid open again, and our attentions were arrested. Although December's gray clouds soared and fog from an oncoming rain lingered, they couldn't hide Chazz, who stood in the doorway, his spiky ebony hair making him impossible to miss in his dark attire. Although it was kept quiet, his Ojamas, often weak in battle, but eccentric in personality, had thrown a celebration for his eighteenth birthday, which was nine days ago on the tenth, although he kept that day to himself. Tomorrow, half of the students would go home for winter break.

He strode in casually, not saying a word, and seated himself at an uninhabited table, two rows away from us on the left. He was a lone wolf, overseeing an undomesticated pack. However, something in him had been modified. Something wasn't quite precise about him, as if he were deeply affected by a sequence of traumas. Not the hyperventilating or lamenting kind of trauma, but the type that left him wordless. Chazz wasn't boasting, or being unreasonable about the value of our dorm. Maybe he was submerged in consideration? Whatever it was, there was a fire of yearning within me, burning wildly as if it were raging in a woodland area.

Before I could even think, I perceived sound from him.

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**Sounds like Chazz has got something important on his mind. :D Given that Jaden's dream isn't entirely relevant to the plot, I guess it won't hurt to explain what he experienced.**

**Okay, so Jaden dreamt he was being chased in a condemned building and a few monsters were chasing him. Then he comes to an elevator shaft and he realizes he's been cornered. The monsters then catch up and they try to convince him to join their side. Jaden, who doesn't have a Duel Disk but doesn't want to, then throws himself into the elevator shaft and dies.**

**So yeah. ;D**

**T__________T Gomenesai. I just realized I failed to do a proper Syrus or Jaden.**

**Venom Amaranth out. WHEW! Three text bodies submitted at once!**


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